Software Advice

[AgeingSuperhero]

Hello,

Looking for some advice on software.

My laptop finally died this week, having been on life support for a year.

I have a MacBook pro that i use for work and they have allowed me to put personal software onto this, providing they approve.

I am looking to put some image stacking software onto the MacBook, similar to Deep Sky Stacker. Having looked at PixInsight and seeing how much it costs, i am not sure whether to just by a new windows laptop and put deep sky stacker on it, as the cost would be roughly the same.

So my question is, is there any stacking software that would run on a MacBook (probably have to be natively) that is either free or cheaper than £250?

Or can stacking be done using Photoshop? as i can get a copy through work.

Any advice is welcome

[NickK]

I have a MBP (i7 with 16GB ram) that I use with PI and it works well.

The stacking and other processing abilities of PI are far beyond DSS.

Have you tried the trial version of PI? From that you can see if you like it first..

[Sp@ce_d]

I run PI under MacOS & Windaes. Would be first choice but if it's not within your budget how about Nebulosity?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[D4N]

There are a few OSX stacking apps.

Lynkeos (aimed at planetary)

Regim

Pixinsight

Nebulosity

The first two are free.

DSS, Autostakkert and Registax will also run in Wine. DSS and Registax have some graphical glitches in Wine though.

Edit: forgot to mention that yes you can stack in Photoshop but it is more difficult and the results tend not to be so good.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[AgeingSuperhero]

Thanks for the responses.

I will try the trial of PixInsight and look into Nebulosity.

I don't think the company i work for will be happy with me putting Wine onto the MacBook.

If i like PixInight, then i will probably buy a license for it after christmas. Given that the MacBook i have been given from work is going to be more powerful than any laptop running windows that i can buy for around the same price (MacBook i5 with 16GB RAM, running yosemite).

Thanks again for the help.

[NickK]

I've used Registax with Wine.. it's a bit odd (the selection of files for example and the format of files is naturally windows biased) and can be a bit unstable.

[D4N]

Yeh registax needs to be shut down after each use when in wine or it throws a wobbler

Autostakkert works flawlessly in wine though so I just use that.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.